Immortalised tears
by Talesofwovensilver
Summary: Oneshot. Thalia always knew, as a Hunter of Artemis, that she would outlive the people she loved. But she wasn't ready. She couldn't deal with this.


Thalia was lost. Not physically. Being a hunter of Artemis had its perks meaning it was a lot harder to lose your way.

No. She knew where she was. She just didn't know what to do. It was like she was falling and drowning both at the same time. Two of her greatest fears.

She'd lost them. She'd lost them both. Without them she would become lost too.

They were the children of the big three. She didn't include the Roman demigods Jason and Hazel. Whilst Jason was her full blooded brother and she loved him like all siblings did. She hadn't seen him for years. They'd both been apart from each other for so many years and those were years she couldn't get back. She was scared of losing him again to get too close and he didn't need her anymore. Their dynamic had changed and it scared Thalia. Her bond with Jason was weak in comparison to her other bonds, and nearly non-existent with Hazel.

She and Nico had both been stuck not aging. Granted, his time lapse was a lot greater than hers. But it was still disconcerting and they bonded over that. As well as the amount of monsters they had to deal with constantly. The way people looked at them and saw children of the big three gods, Zeus and Hades. They didn't look at them and see Thalia and Nico. The tired demigods who'd both seen and been through so much in such a short amount of time.

And then there was Percy. The only person who could rile her up so much and yet when it really mattered, calm her down just as easily. The one person who could make her feel safe and vulnerable, strong and weak, all at the same time. He annoyed her to hell and back a lot of the time but he was one of (if not the most) sweetest, most considerate people she had ever met. He was family. Him and Nico. A family she had chosen for herself.

They'd all suffered. All felt the burden of who they were. But Percy most of all. Included in two prophecies and had saved the world twice. Never once had someone asked him how he felt about it and never once had he said no or refused that burden. Because he was also the most honourable person she knew.

Nico and Percy didn't use to have the best relationship. Nico had resented him and Percy blamed himself for Bianca's death and had believed Nico had every right to hate him for it too. Leaving a strained relationship between the two.

However, after the second war when Nico had finally gotten over Percy and discovered other people they had repaired the damage to their relationship. They had become thick as thieves. Whenever Nico was at camp Percy would break the rules to sit with him and even sleep in one another's cabins. Chiron didn't say anything because he had a soft spot for them and understood they felt alone. Nico would go to visit Percy when he was home in New York and they would watch Finding Nemo and Disney's Hercules and laugh at all the inaccuracies.

When Percy and Annabeth had split because they realised they wanted different things, Thalia and Nico had healed Percy.

They took him to the beach, and at one point Nico had convinced Thalia that it would be a good idea to go skydiving because it would help her fear of heights when she would realise they were harmless - to her anyway - and so they had gone to Olympus and Thalia had begged her father to allow Percy and Nico in the sky with her because she only had a week off from the hunters and she wanted to have a little fun, and what better way than to spend it in the sky. Zeus's very own grand domain.

She hadn't mentioned how Poseidon had let both her and Nico until his domain without having to ask and because he knew it was in their nature to fear the ocean - after Percy's suggestion - he had deliberately made the waves calmer. That had been a wonderful day.

When her father granted her request Nico had dragged both her and Percy - whose fear of the sky was completely rational as her father had once told him he would blast him out the sky if he ever entered his domain again - to go skydiving and then chickened out at the last moment. Meaning Thalia had to literally push him out the plane. Percy had gone with her so they jumped together and for the first time ever Thalia hadn't been able to think about her fear of heights when she had Percy's hilarious, half laugh, half scream sounding in her ear.

For the whole thing, Percy had been too preoccupied with not dying than his split with Annabeth, so Nico and Thalia had considered it a success.

After that Thalia hadn't been afraid of heights and had learned when jumping off high objects she could manipulate the air around her to push her faster or slower so she could crash down dramatically making a crater or appearing to glide like a feather in the wind.

When Thalia had to go back to the Hunters of Artemis, they had all been disappointed but agreed to do it again as soon as Thalia could come away again.

Percy and Nico had grown up whilst she had stayed in a child's body, but they never treated her any differently and for that she was grateful. Yet every time she saw them was a reminder they would eventually die whilst she would not. So she had resolved herself to live life with them the fullest.

But this was too soon.

She had been naïve. Had imagined they would live to a ripe old age where she could make fun of them when they began to wrinkle and she maintained her youthful appearance.

They were too young. They had only had 3 years of peace with no war.

Still with the countless monster attacks which had become regular for them when Nico and Percy had moved out of Sally and Pauls apartment and decided to rent one of their own instead of moving to New Rome, which held too many memories of a future with Annabeth for Percy and where Nico had never really felt at home, being Greek as they were.

Percy was only 19 and Nico 18 (Thalia still wasn't exactly sure how that had happened. Nico hadn't explained) and now Thalia wouldn't get to see them grow old and be the cool aunt to any future nephews or nieces.

Now they both lay dead in front of her and she could feel a scream winding its way through her body. She let it rip through her throat until she could taste blood.

Still she kept screaming because she wanted- No. Needed - everyone to know her pain. To feel as she did.

She knew that if she stopped screaming she would be made to understand, to comprehend that they were dead and they were never coming back.

Thalia couldn't breathe. There was something suffocating her. It wasn't the hand over her mouth or the pressure of people pushing her. Trying to get her to respond or move or anything.

There was something pushing at her and she couldn't get past it. Her head was pounding and her limbs felt like she'd just been drugged. She couldn't even hold herself up.

She stared at them. They were both so beautiful.

For some people dead was horrific, they came out looking like they'd been in a blender or used as a knife sharpener, with others it was like a bomb had gone off exploding them or incinerating them.

But not those two.

They both wore numerous scars from the battle. Percy had a deep one just across his right cheek bone and Nico had several criss-crossing his knuckles and Thalia's brain wasn't functioning correctly because she had no idea what could have done that.

Yet they still managed to look like fallen angels.

With their dark hair falling around their heads and small scars everywhere along their toned bare arms, and the silhouette of their muscular torsos and legs that didn't have armour covering them because they hadn't had time to put it on.

They looked peaceful with their eyes closed.

But Thalia knew that beneath the blue veined lids instead of the bright sea green orbs or darkly glittering coal eyes that she so desperately wanted to see, if she reached over and lifted the fragile lids coverings those eyes, she'd find herself staring into dull lifeless sockets. Percy's eyes wouldn't be bright with excitement and Nico's wouldn't be glittering with contained amusement and fondness at Percy's childishness.

So she looked at them in all their beautiful, immortalised glory as they lay there and she let herself believe that Percy's eyes would be bright and Nico's would be glittering. Because that was how she wanted to remember them. Not staring and lifeless.

That was cold, harsh reality.

Then she had to look away because as much as she wanted to rage and scream at them for their betrayal at leaving her alone, she was hurt, and she was tired and she just wanted to sink into the hopeful oblivion that was sleep. Hoping that Morpheus would be kind and send her some of her better memories. Because it was either that or this and she couldn't deal with this right now.

She let Chiron lead her away. But she didn't go to Cabin 8 where she knew the rest of the hunters would be.

She didn't go to Cabin One where she still had a few of her belongings stashed in her alcove.

She went to Cabin Three. Where she could smell the sea without being reminded of the blood this had been shed on its beach. Where she knew for a fact that her boys had kept some of their clothes.

She stepped into the cabin and she was reminded so strongly of Percy she wanted to cry. And for the first time that she could remember, she let herself.

She lay on Percy's bed, wrapped in one of Nico's shirts that was too big for her but that smelt of him, cocooned in the familiarity of their scents and their presence. Knowing tomorrow she would have to leave and face life without them.

So she breathed them in and then let it all out. No one came to get her and for that she was thankful. She needed to be alone.

She fell asleep like that, the tears on her face freezing and staining her cheeks, her grief immortalising them on her skin forever.


End file.
